Evian brings back its babies as it continues ‘obsession’ to reinvent itself

The Evian babies have today (20 April) returned to TV screens in a new ad that looks to better communicate the product and focus on the water’s core message; youth.

The 'Baby Bay' film, set on a South African beach, shows a surfer who finds himself surrounded by little surfers who serve up Evian at a beach bar shack. The idea behind the campaign is to “surprise” consumers as well as push the brand’s content strategy around ‘live young spirit’, Céline Barral, innovation director at Evian International told The Drum.

“Youth has always been a central message for Evian, [having been] originally conceived as the 'babies’ water' in France and handed out in the maternity [wards]. This time we wanted to propose a new surprising and engaging piece of content about what we call the 'live young spirit'. As an embodiment of youthfulness, babies have always been a key part of Evian's brand DNA.

“The rhythm is certainly different versus previous campaigns; with this film you have intrigue and suspense. It's a different way of approaching entertainment. So it is not a change of target audience but more about our obsession to reinvent ourselves continuously.”

Conceived by BETC, the campaign includes a mobile app in partnership with Quiksilver, which offers users a fun 360° wave-riding experience. Ads will also run print media as well as collector's items and social media activity.

The VR app was conceived and produced by Versus.

Explaining the brief Valérie Chidlovsky, creative at BETC, said that the campaign needed to “re-introduce” the product and to be more “explicit about the evian effects”.

“Despite the stronger product focus we didn’t want to go back to a traditional advertising construction and we wanted to avoid the eternal before/after [situation]. We imagined a place (the 'Baby Bay') where everyone around had been drinking Evian, which allowed us to only show the ‘after’, that is the post-Evian adults, transformed into babies.”

Meanwhile In the United States and Canada, Evian has partnered with supermodel Gigi Hadid who will be featured in out of home ads dressed as a surfer alongside her baby lookalike.